Auxerre, Le Havre, Rennes… Outside Paris, the regions are banking on broths

On the walls and ceiling, glass frescoes recall those of the Chartier broth. In the dining room, waitresses weave nimbly, serving eggs and mayonnaise for three euros, sausages and mashed potatoes for ten, or rice pudding for five euros. Except that we are not in the capital, but on Place Charles-Lepère, in Auxerre (Yonne). This is where the Bouillon auxerrois opened in May, promising to import the flavors and low prices of Parisian broths, which have been all the rage in recent years. Véronique, 57, shared a foie gras starter, before enjoying an andouillette and, for dessert, tucking into her brother Patrick's French toast: "We wanted to have a proper lunch. Well, we had to look for it... Here, it was very nice and very good. I think it's going to work!" "The word broth hooked me! "In terms of what we ate, the service and the decor, it was very good," confirms Jean-Michel, the third of the siblings.

Auxerre, but also Clermont-Ferrand, Orléans, Dijon, Rennes, Toulouse, Lyon, Le Havre and even Aix-en-Provence: broths have been spreading across the regions since the post-Covid period. "It's a broth craze in the provinces: there are now 253 broths in France, only a good handful of which are in Paris," explains Bernard Boutboul, founder of the Gira firm, an expert in the food market. Unlike those in the capital, the majority of broths in the regions are independent, not backed by a group.